Posidonia australis

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Family Posidoniaceae

Taxonomy: Posidonia australis Hook.f.

Synonyms: 2 (APC 2026-07-30)

Alga australis (Hook.f.) Kuntze (taxonomic synonym)
Caulinia australiana F.Muell. (taxonomic synonym)

Misapplied names: 1 (APC 2026-07-30)

Caulinia oceanica (L.) DC. (misapplied)

Distribution (APC): WA, SA, NSW, Vic, Tas

Profiles: APC, Flora of Australia, ALA, iNaturalist, NSW Flora, SA eFlora, Vic Flora, Florabase, ATRP

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (4), ABRS_2023 (19), Hughes_1992 (2), Jordan_2001 (7), Kew_2019_3 (3), NHNSW_2014_2 (1), NHNSW_2022 (5), NHNSW_2023 (10), RBGV_2023 (2), SAH_2014 (4), Sjostrom_2006 (2), WAH_2022_2 (5), WAH_2023_2 (1), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), White_2020 (20), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (14). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 61 traits from 102 records in 17 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

fire response

resprouting_capacity (categorical): resprouts (1) [sources: White_2020]

flower morphology

sex_type (categorical): hermaphrodite (2); monoecious (1) [sources: Jordan_2001; Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 23.75 mm (15-30 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023]
fruit_type (categorical): drupe (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1) [sources: Jordan_2001]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (1); indehiscent (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_colour (categorical): green (1); yellow (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]

leaf morphology

leaf_length (numerical): 541.67 mm (200-1400 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; SAH_2014]
leaf_width (numerical): 13 mm (6-20 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; SAH_2014]
leaf_shape (categorical): linear (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023]
leaf_base_shape (categorical): sheathing (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
leaf_margin (categorical): entire (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
leaf_lamina_posture (categorical): flat (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023]
leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
leaf_arrangement (categorical): distichous (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]
plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023]

life history

photosynthetic_pathway (categorical): c3 (1) [sources: White_2020]
plant_growth_form (categorical): herb (6) [sources: ABRS_2022; Hughes_1992; NHNSW_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022; White_2020]
life_history (categorical): perennial (5) [sources: ABRS_2022; Jordan_2001; NHNSW_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2023]
plant_growth_substrate (categorical): aquatic (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; WAH_2022_2]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (4) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; WAH_2022_2; Wenk_2022]
stem_growth_habit (categorical): floating (1); rhizomatous (2); submerged (2) [sources: Hughes_1992; NHNSW_2022; WAH_2022_2]
nitrogen_fixing (categorical): non_nitrogen_fixer (1) [sources: White_2020]
parasitic (categorical): not_parasitic (1) [sources: White_2020]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): abiotic (1) [sources: White_2020]
dispersal_syndrome (categorical): hydrochory (1) [sources: White_2020]
dispersers (categorical): water (1) [sources: White_2020]
flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnnnnnnyy (2) [sources: NHNSW_2014_2; White_2020]
seedbank_longevity_class (categorical): transient (1) [sources: White_2020]
vegetative_reproduction_ability (categorical): vegetative (1) [sources: White_2020]
storage_organ (categorical): rhizome (4) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; RBGV_2023; WAH_2023_2]

seed morphology

seed_length (numerical): 20 mm (15-25 mm) [sources: Jordan_2001; ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023]
seed_width (numerical): 5 mm (5-5 mm) [sources: Jordan_2001]
seed_shape (categorical): ellipsoid (1) [sources: ABRS_2023]

whole plant morphology

plant_physical_defence_structures (categorical): absent (1) [sources: White_2020]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
White_2020	20	20	M. White, S. Sinclair, and D. Frood. Victorian Vital Attributes Database. database. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria, 2020.
ABRS_2023	15	19	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
eFLOWER_Dun_2022	13	14	L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
NHNSW_2023	9	10	N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Jordan_2001	7	7	G. J. Jordan. “An investigation of long-distance dispersal based on species native to both Tasmania and New Zealand”. Australian Journal of Botany 49.3 (2001), pp. 333-340. doi: 10.1071/bt00024.
NHNSW_2022	5	5	N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
WAH_2022_2	5	5	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
ABRS_2022	4	4	Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
SAH_2014	2	4	J. P. Jessop and H. R. Toelken. Flora of South Australia, 4th edition, 4 vols. Electronic version curated by J. Kellermann, State Herbarium of South Australia.. Government Printer, Adelaide, 1986.
Kew_2019_3	3	3	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Salt and water tolerance data from the Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Hughes_1992	2	2	L. Hughes and B. Rice. “Unpublished data: Traits data for 643 species, Macquarie University”. 1992.
RBGV_2023	2	2	VicFlora. Flora of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/.
Sjostrom_2006	2	2	A. Sjöström and C. L. Gross. “Life-history characters and phylogeny are correlated with extinction risk in the Australian angiosperms”. Journal of Biogeography 33.2 (2006), pp. 271-290. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2005.01393.x.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
NHNSW_2014_2	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
WAH_2023_2	1	1	Western Australian Herbarium. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.